Ramblings and doodlings of an unsettled mind!

A landmark case was decided in Kuala Lumpur High Court today. Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris has been determined by the High Court as blogger Papagomo and ordered to pay half a million Ringgit to businessman Abdul Razak Mohd. Nor for defamation in an article the former posted in Papagomo.com (now defunct).

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has ruled that Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris is blogger Papagomo (pic) and ordered him to pay a businessman RM500,000 in damages in a defamation suit.

Businessman Abdul Razak Mohd Noor had filed a RM10mil defamation suit against Papagomo, claiming that the blogger had implied he was a liar who earned millions of ringgit in the Commonwealth Games.

In his ruling, Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera ordered Papagomo to pay RM200,000 in general damages and RM300,000 in exemplary damages.

He also granted an injunction to stop Papagomo from further defaming Abdul Razak.

JC Vazeer ordered Papagomo to pay the businessman RM50,000 in costs.

In his judgment, JC Vazeer said Papagomo was not remorseful of his actions and this was reflected in his conduct when he testified in the defamation trial.

He said he hoped the award would serve as a lesson to bloggers who uploaded defamatory articles in anonymity.

Wan Muhammad Azri had previously denied that he was the controversial blogger Papagomo.

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Wan Muhammad Azri has been vehemently denying that he is blogger ‘Papagomo’ and he maintained the blog papagomo.com. This has been his line of defense in the third landmark case where judgement was decided against a socio-political blogger.

This would set a precedence, not only to the various suits that Papagomo is facing but also to others who wants to take anonymous bloggers to court or from persecution.

Razak said he believed that Papagomo and another blogger explicitly used viral words and description to defame him using their blogs, as part of the outcome to the cases which were taken in the courts and the outcome were unfavourable and probably detrimental to certain parties.

Never the less, this a dangerous precedence to anonymous socio-politico bloggers.

But now UMNO should help him pay his legal fees to appeal to the highest court of the land. UMNO should do it because he helped UMNO a lot by his writing. Nothing wrong in helping him get a chance to defend himself to the highest court.

I think you very well know this was coming his way and the decision was inevitable.

The moment Husam Musa made that PC, Utusan published the Papagomo page right in front and he was arrested under sedition and Police announced the “Arrest of Papagomo” days after 13GE, his days are numbered.

What irked me is that this man was charged for soliciting a bribe for discovery of a narcotics case when he was still a Traffic Policeman and was wearing his uniform.